Scams expert on how to avoid being hooked in by ‘sophisticated’ fraudsters | Personal Finance | Finance

“There will always be some legitimate reasons why firms or businesses will contact you, but when they do, always check the email addresses they come from.

“Look out for those misplaced hyphens, the slight changes in spelling.

“No one is every going to ask for your log in details, your credit card numbers, your personal details. Never give those away.”

Another helpful tool is the 159 phone line, a service launched by Stop Scams that is available to most UK banking customers.

The service connects the person securely to their bank, so if someone gets a suspicious call, they can hang up and call 159 to make sure that they are legitimately talking to their bank about whatever the issue may be.

Mr Miller said: “No legitimate bank is ever going to mind if you hang up on them.

“In making that call to 159, you’re doing absolutely no harm to yourself or your relationship with the bank.

“You are potentially providing yourself with a really valuable route back to safety, and you’re ultimately protecting yourself from being defrauded financially.”